##Tracey Chapman is one of the more underrated performers of the last twenty years. Every two or three years she releases an album filled with quality songs. Where You Live is no exception to this rule. The album is an appealing mixture of socially aware and deep lyrics set to an easy flowing mid-tempo beat. Ms. Chapman has one of the warmest voices in music and she employs it to perfection on tracks like "Never Yours", "3,000 Miles", "Before Easter" and the highlight track "Talk To You". "America" is another classic political charged song from Ms. Chapman and lets hope she continues to shine a light on the issues as she has done so admirably well for so long.

Tracy Chapman's "Let It Rain" is a ray of sunshine. It's quiet thoughtful melodies ooze sincerity as they beautifully weave their spell. The title track is a soft breeze, "Give me hope that help is coming when I need it most." Greg Leisz's acoustic lap steel gives "Another Sun" an eerie haunting quality in juxtaposition to the strength in Tracy's vocals. The joyful toe tapper "You're the One" has me hitting the repeat button in my personal top ten, "Let 'em talk you down, call you names; my mind's made up; it ain't gonna change." Larry Taylor's upright bass sounds like a heartbeat in the slow & powerful "In the Dark," "Leave my body with permanent marks, faded scars & lines, but not a single impression of the things some do in the dark." "One hello, just one kiss before the tears come," Tracy sings on the midtempo "Almost." "Hard Wired" sounds like a peppy protest song that keeps wanting to be a ballad. "Say Hallelujah" thumps like a lively elegy for the dearly departed. "Broken"'s melody has the charm of an eastern European folk song. "Happy" is one of the softest, moodiest pieces I've heard in many a moon. On "Goodbye," producer John Parish brings in a number of wonderfully unique sounding instruments including gourdolin, oboe, cello and viola. "Over in Love" is a pretty instrumental piece with Tracy's acoustic guitar and Matt Brubeck's cello. The CD concludes with "I Am Yours," "When voices call me to question my faith, when misperception taints my love with hate, I am yours if you are mine." Tracy's CD packs an emotional wallop. While a couple songs will set your toe to tapping, most will softly lead you to contemplate reflective times. This is a fascinating and engaging work. Prepare to be touched!

1. Heaven's Here On Earth2. New Beginning3. Smoke And Ashes4. Coldfeet5. At This Point In My Life6. The Promise7. The Rape Of The World8. Tell It Like It Is9. Give Me One Reason10. Remember The Tinman11. I'm Ready

Tracy Chapman helped restore singer/songwriters to the spotlight in the '80s. The multi-platinum success of Chapman's eponymous 1988 debut was unexpected, and it had lasting impact. Although Chapman was working from the same confessional singer/songwriter foundation that had been popularized in the '70s, her songs were fresh and powerful, driven by simple melodies and affecting lyrics. At the time of her first album, there were only a handful of artists performing such a style successfully, and her success ushered in a new era of singer/songwriters that lasted well into the '90s. Furthermore, her album helped usher in the era of political correctness -- along with 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M., Chapman's liberal politics proved enormously influential on American college campuses in the late '80s. Of course, such implications meant that Chapman's subsequent recordings were greeted with mixed reactions, but after several years out of the spotlight, she managed to make a very successful... Read More

Tracy Chapman helped restore singer/songwriters to the spotlight in the '80s. The multi-platinum success of Chapman's eponymous 1988 debut was unexpected, and it had lasting impact. Although Chapman was working from the same confessional singer/songwriter foundation that had been popularized in the '70s, her songs were fresh and powerful, driven by simple melodies and affecting lyrics. At the time of her first album, there were only a handful of artists performing such a style successfully, and her success ushered in a new era of singer/songwriters that lasted well into the '90s. Furthermore, her album helped usher in the era of political correctness -- along with 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M., Chapman's liberal politics proved enormously influential on American college campuses in the late '80s. Of course, such implications meant that Chapman's subsequent recordings were greeted with mixed reactions, but after several years out of the spotlight, she managed to make a very successful comeback in 1996 with her fourth album, New Beginning, thanks to the Top Ten single "Give Me One Reason."

Raised in a working class neighborhood in Cleveland, OH, Chapman learned how to play guitar as a child, and began to write her own songs shortly afterward. Following high school, she won a minority placement scholarship and decided to attend Tufts University, where she studied anthropology and African studies. While at Tufts, she became fascinated with folk-rock and singer/songwriters, and began performing her own songs at coffeehouses. Eventually, she recorded a set of demos at the college radio station. One of her fellow students, Brian Koppelman, heard Chapman play and recommended her to his father, Charles Koppelman, who ran SBK Publishing. In 1986, she signed with SBK and Koppelman secured a management contract with Elliot Roberts, who had worked with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Roberts and Koppelman helped Chapman sign to Elektra in 1987.

Chapman recorded her debut album with David Kershenbaum, and the resulting eponymous record was released in the spring of 1988. Tracy Chapman was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and she set out on the road supporting 10,000 Maniacs. Within a few months, she played at the internationally televised concert for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday party, where her performance was greeted with thunderous applause. Soon, the single "Fast Car" began climbing the charts, eventually peaking at number six. The album's sales soared along with the single, and by the end of the year, the record had gone multi-platinum. Early the following year, the record won four Grammys, including Best New Artist.

It was an auspicious beginning to Chapman's career, and it was perhaps inevitable that her second album, 1989's darker, more political Crossroads, wasn't as successful. Although it was well-reviewed, the album wasn't as commercially successful, peaking at number nine and quickly falling down the charts. Following Crossroads, Chapman spent a few years in seclusion, returning in 1992 with Matters of the Heart. The album was greeted with mixed reviews and weak sales, and Chapman had fallen into cult status. Three years later, she returned with New Beginning, which received stronger reviews than its predecessor. The bluesy "Give Me One Reason" was pulled as the first single, and it slowly became a hit, sending the album into the U.S. Top Ten in early 1996. It was a quiet, successful comeback from an artist most observers had already consigned to forever languish in cult status. Telling Stories followed in early 2000. Let It Rain followed two years later. For 2005's Where You Live, Chapman co-produced the album with Tchad Blake. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

For anyone hearing the Daniel Levin Quartet for the first time, there's apt to be a dual response, a sense of something at once familiar and very different, a sounding which chamber music sonorities promise an unexpected emotional possibility, an invocation of something lost that is also an intimation of what is to come.

The cumulative effect of the quartet's music is vivid, as if its vocabulary of precise timbres is gleaned from the density of our past listening, as if high frequencies previously consumed by cymbals have been restored to us. It seems to operate on a principle of exchange in which all those things formerly adjudged hot and cool in the jazz tradition have temporarily traded identities.